In a Mail & Guardian article Ernst Roets, deputy chief executive of Afrikaner civil society organisation AfriForum, has claimed that “the private security industry in South Africa is the largest in the world”. He did not provide a source for this claim.

Given that many South African houses and business are wired with alarms and surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire or electric fences, Roets’s perception is a popular one. Yet, as Africa Check has reported previously, available data shows this claim to be false – whether measured in absolute numbers, number of private security personnel per 100,000 citizens or the number of private security personnel compared to police.

Although it isn’t a straightforward exercise to compare countries due to variations in reporting practices, the survey did show that South Africa’s private security industry is dwarfed by that of India, where 7-million people were employed by security companies there in 2011. China was second with 5-million and Russia next with 800,000.

Looking at ratios, South Africa was placed fourth in the category of number of private security personnel per 100,000 people, as well as the number of private security personnel compared to police. Guatemala in Central America topped both lists.

Roughly 8,300 people died in political conflict in sub-Saharan Africa in the first two months of 2015, largely as a result of Boko Haram activity. If the insurgency is not brought under control, this may be the deadliest year in a decade.

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For democracy to function, public figures need to be held to account for what they say. The claims they make need to be checked, openly and impartially. Africa Check is an independent, non-partisan organisation which assesses claims made in the public arena using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting fact from fiction and publishing the results.